


Voices Never Heard

by Kage_hikari, Nyra_the_draconic_demon_Dragion



Series: The Life That Escapes You [2]
Category: Original Work, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, spa mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 17:32:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15078155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kage_hikari/pseuds/Kage_hikari, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyra_the_draconic_demon_Dragion/pseuds/Nyra_the_draconic_demon_Dragion
Summary: Kage had finally found someone who she desperately wanted to help. There's only one problem: he can't see or hear her at all. When the one she wants to help is lightyears away in reality, how can she help change his life for the better.(AKA) Kage's point of view on the events of The Life That Escapes You.(Basically my friend read The Life That Escapes You and decided to write her character's reaction.)





	Voices Never Heard

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so this story starts at around the same point that The Life That Escapes You does and it ends at the same point too.  
> This story was written by my friend who read the previous one and decided to show how her character (Kage) would handle (or react to) the situation.  
> All credits from this story go to my friend.
> 
> Enjoy!

Kage had done it again.

Somehow she always managed to get herself in trouble, and this time was no different.

All she wanted was to get a book, just one measly book.

After all, she was bored.

The guards had other plans.

Apparently prisoners aren't supposed to leave their cells, but it wasn't her fault.

If they didn't want people leaving the cells, they should make it so she couldn't get out of them.

How was she supposed to know that the Galra would throw her in solitary confinement?

Her boredom grew even more in solitary. It was dark, quiet, and worst of all, there was nobody to talk to.

So Kage did the one thing she could think of to relieve her boredom, she opened her mind to the universe.  

Maybe she would find someone to talk to there.

A few minutes into her search, she felt an inexplicable pull.

It was drawing her in, calling to her.

She wanted to follow it so bad.

Following her impulses usually didn't work out though, and she stopped, thinking for a moment before following it anyways.

As if she had anything better to do.

\----

She had been chasing the pull for hours when she saw him. If she compared people to candles, then he was surely shining the brightest.

The very air around him seemed to shimmer and glow.

Kage wanted to know more.

Why did this boy shine so bright?

So she watched and listened, eventually learning that his name was Keith, but she couldn’t find out why he shone so brightly.

It wasn’t until later that she realized it. He was burning away at himself to the point that it fueled his light. It was astoundingly beautiful, but she knew such a thing wouldn't last long. Kage knew he would burn himself out eventually, and she didn’t want that.

But she could do nothing but watch.

\----

She was there when he reminisced about his parents and his life on earth, and she saw the pain it brought him.  She would have comforted him but could not, for he did not hear her voice.

She watched as he was scorned by his allies.

When they turned on him, despite the fact that he was the same Keith they had always known.

She didn’t understand their actions.

Her people had never scorned someone for their race. Keith wasn’t even fully Galra, only half; his allies didn't seem to see it that way, though, turning on him in an instant.

She truly didn’t understand.

She had figured they would get over their differences eventually. Good friends and family usually did, but they didn’t, and she saw on his face all the pain and betrayal Keith was feeling. They were his closest friends, at least it had seemed that way. How could they turn on him like that?

Keith just took it all quietly without complaining, although she did witness him get hurt on purpose so that they wouldn’t need him on the team anymore. It was obvious, too. He set the training simulation way too high, high enough for him to get injured while attempting it.  

His ‘allies’ just shoved him in a healing pod and left.

She was there when nobody else was. When Keith came out of the healing pod and stumbled, she had even tried to catch him, to show him that someone was there for him. She could not however, for she was only there in spirit and unable to support his being, let alone catch him.

She only watched as he made his way back to the bridge to find his ‘team,’ and heard them tell Keith that he was no longer needed.

She saw the looks they gave him, how could she not? They were so cold they sent shivers up her spine.

Kage had lived many years, and still she had never thought that people so close could commit such treason against one of their own so easily.

She thought that he would answer back, that he would argue he was useful.

Instead, he seemed to shrink inward. He simply accepted his defeat and left.

Nobody even went to see him off.

The chilling realization that people could be so cruel shattered her focus.

She was back in her cell again, no sign of the boy named Keith. Not for the first time, Kage wished she could be there in person.

That she could walk up and wrap her arms around Keith and tell him that she accepts him for who he is.

Maybe, just maybe, she could…

\----

When she found him again, Keith was in a whole new place, but his emotions remained solemn at best. He was alone in a dark room, the paladins nowhere to be seen.

At first, she was confused, where was he? But then she realized he was exactly where he said he would be. He had joined the Blades full time.  

The life that he had seemed so happy in was now far away, and Kage grieved for his loss. Nothing was worse than losing the people you cared about, even if they were still alive.

She fully understood his decision to leave, but was confused by his lack of company now. Nobody should be left alone when they've been abandoned, when they've just lost a crucial part of their life.

If he had come to the Shades, there was no way they would have left him alone. They would have found someone to help him transition, to comfort him and help relieve his suffering. Someone to wrap him in a blanket and tell him that everything would be okay.

Maybe she herself would have volunteered for it.

If she were free, that was.

Just a minuscule problem, one that she would solve soon enough. She just had to set it all up and wait for the right time.  Then she would be out of there.

She would go to wherever Keith was and do what she couldn’t do now.

\----

As she continued to watch, it seemed that Keith was slowly looking increasingly fragile, like a hollow porcelain doll.

So pretty and perfect on the outside, but filled with an emptiness that makes it much more vulnerable than most toys.

The type of doll that never gets loved.

Most people just put it on a shelf, and it lays there forgotten. Over the years it suffers from neglect, slowly falling apart from lack of care. Eventually, the people who put it there find it once more, and they look at it once more. They say it is such a shame, that it should have been built more durably, that it should have been taken care of. They never accept it was their fault, and simply discard it, saying that it’s time to get something new.

But Kage knew better than to abandon something like that. To neglect something that requires love. And watching something, in this case someone, that was brought into existence for more just rot away like this, well, it broke her heart.

She wished for something to come and take his mind off his team.

To get him focused on something else.

To take his mind off the pain.

Soon her prayers were answered, and he was sent on a mission.

And another.

And another.

It went on like that for a while, and Keith would pour his all into the mission.

At first Kage was grateful for the distraction it gave Keith, but it soon became more.

She watched as Keith began to self-destruct.

He trained too hard.

Pushed himself too far.

He just did way too much. Far more than was necessary. It wasn’t good for him and she could see it taking its toll on his body and mind.

Occasionally the other Blades would force him to rest, but it wasn't enough. He kept going, to the point that his lack of self-care affected his work.

She watched him fail a mission. It didn’t make him stop. He just pushed harder, tried to do even more.

His fellow blades continued to tell him to stop, but Kage could see it was only for the sake of the mission. After all, it was their way. The mission came first and the individual last, if at all.

She didn’t approve of their cruel mindset. Kage was brought up doing almost the exact opposite. If anything went wrong, her team would come first. She would make sure they could get out safely. If needed, she would even complete the mission alone. No more casualties than absolutely necessary.

But the blades...she didn’t understand. They would sacrifice themselves and each other to complete a mission. If anyone got left behind, they wouldn’t turn back. It was all for the greater cause.

Well, just who would be left to continue their cause if they were all dead?

All of it made Kage sick.

People were more than just a means to a cause.

Keith needed to be treated like a living and breathing person.

\----

The unjustified, cold treatment from the other races didn’t help either.

The ones on the planets they rescued always looked at the Blades with hate in their eyes. As if the ones who had just saved them were going to turn around and rule the planet themselves.

Yet another thing Kage did not understand.

Sure the Blades were Galra, but what did that matter?

She had been hurt and imprisoned just as many times by members of many other races. If she held grudges against the whole race for the actions of the few, well, she’d be looking at more than a third of the universe.

She would not blame the Blades for the actions of the very people they were fighting against.  Sure the Galra empire had slaughtered her crew, but that was on her. She should have protected them properly, but she didn’t. They all died to protect her instead. She sucked at being a leader, and that was exactly why she left home in the first place.

But she wouldn’t blame the Blades for that. Just as she never blamed those other races.

She could never be happy holding grudges like that, but she knew that not everybody was like her. They would continue discriminating.

Although, she didn’t know why they had to include Keith, he wasn’t even fully Galra. He was half human as well. On top of that, he used to be the pilot of the red lion. They had no right whatsoever to discriminate against him.

Right then, Kage decided that when she escaped and found Keith, she would bring him to a Solarian spa.

He needed it after all he had been through.

Nobody would care about his ancestry there, and even if they did, she would teach them some manners herself.

\----

Things continued like this for a while, Keith would work himself half to death and then poorly disguise his condition before briefly resting.

Kage thought that maybe, just maybe, Keith would stop somewhere and take care of himself properly, but that never happened.

In fact, one day, she watched in solemn silence as it got much, much worse.

He was on a mission to retrieve some information, nothing he hadn’t done before. But something went wrong, and two of his companions ended up dead. They sacrificed themselves so that he could get out alive with the info.

She saw the confusion on his face when it happened. The look that said, ‘Why me? Why did I survive while they died?’  

She wanted to tell him that it was because he still had so much life to live, that he had the best chances, but nothing had changed and he still heard nothing.

It was not long after that when something in his mind changed. Kage could feel it and hear it for that matter.

She figured it was as clear to him as it was to her. It was deep and felt exceedingly dark, and she knew it came from the darkest depths of his mind.

It was relentless, attacking Keith with such ferocity that Kage was completely stunned. It called Keith useless and said everyone in his life had left him because of that. His mother, his father, the foster parents, and his teacher.

Even Shiro and the rest of the team.

They all left because they found out the truth about Keith.

It grew in strength with each vile accusation, going into depth about just why everyone in his life couldn’t stand to be near him.

Kage knew it was lies, but she knew that Keith, considering his current mental state, could not defend against the barrage of insults.

So Kage tried her best to silence the voice, and at times she was successful. But she was never able to hold it long, it wasn’t her mind, and as such, she didn't have the same control over it.

Each mistake that Keith made was another bullet in the gun that the voice held against his head, and it never stopped firing.

She could feel him slipping closer to madness with each shot. It was what the voice wanted, she could tell.

It broke Keith down piece by piece, and it was slow work. But after a particularly bad slip up on Keith’s part, it spoke words that Kage had hoped not to hear.

That Keith didn’t deserve to be alive.

That he should just die.

She wanted to shout out that this was wrong. That Keith had every right to live. But he didn’t seem surprised by the words the voice spoke, and she realized that he had already accepted them as a fact.

He didn’t think he had a reason to be alive.

Then Kage spoke aloud without meaning to. If any guard had come to her cell, they would have heard her rambling. About how the world wouldn't be the same. That there was only one irreplaceable Keith.

When she stopped, everything was silent. The voice had paused its torment.

Keith himself broke the silence, posing a question.

Did the universe enjoy breaking him?

She thought about it for a moment.

Was that possible? Maybe that was it.

Fate had dealt him a bad hand. If that was the case, then she would go reshuffle the cards herself.

Perhaps she would beat up the universe while she was at it.

The joke didn’t help any.

She couldn’t do this anymore, cooped up in the small cell, unable to do anything. She clenched her hand into a fist and drove it into the floor…

It felt strangely wet.

She opened her eyes and realized it was. There were tears streaming down her face, leaving glowing trails all the way to the floor where they began to pool into the dent she had made.

She hadn’t even noticed she was crying.

It surprised her.

In all the years she had been imprisoned, she had never given her captors the pleasure of seeing her cry. Yet here she was, torturing herself more effectively than they ever had, even to the point that she was in tears. She was crying over someone she had never actually met, but somehow, somehow she understood way too well.

She fell asleep with the tears still rolling.

\----

Over the next few days, Kage watched as Keith tried to get himself killed.

She didn’t want that to happen. She hadn't gotten to tell him all the reasons for him to live yet.

So, she hacked into the Empire’s systems and placed a virus. It wasn’t strong, but it was enough to make the sentries miss theirs shots and to cause the occasional blaster to malfunction. She wished she could do more, but hacking wasn’t her forte.

It was hard enough staying undetected while using a regular computer, let alone when she was using a microscopic drone to do the deed (somehow, the Galra had failed to confiscate it from her).

But Kage’s efforts, while preventing Keith’s death, did nothing to help his mental state. In fact, the voice took them as an opportunity to insult Keith further.

Saying that he couldn’t end it even if he tried.

That the universe wouldn’t let him.

She knew that this wasn’t true; she was the one who wouldn’t let him die. The Voice took everything she did and used it to tell Keith that the universe hated him just like everyone else.

With this new realization, the Voice expanded its tactics further, and it didn’t plan to stop.

It continued to grind away at Keith’s mind. Kage saw Keith try to work off the madness and insults but it didn’t work. The pressure that the Voice was putting on Keith now showed in every movement, every word.

She could tell that he was going to snap somewhere, and she could do nothing to stop it.

She still wouldn’t be able to escape for some time yet.

After all, she didn’t want to be discovered.

\----

Eventually, Kage was proven right. (Despite her wishes to be wrong.)

Keith shattered.

Or rather, he simply collapsed.

It wasn’t loud, or overly dramatic. It just happened.

Somehow, it felt worse this way. The world had no right to silence something this heartbreaking.

If it were more visible, even minutely, then maybe someone would have taken notice. But no one except Kage saw his crying.  

No one else saw him collapse into short, shuddering breaths.

No one else saw him break.

There should have been someone.

Anyone.

It was in this moment that the voice aimed to make the final blow, right there and then. Acting on impulse, Kage lashed out. Hard. Forcing the existence of the Voice somewhere into the depths of Keith’s mind.

Hopefully, it would stay there. Keith didn’t need that voice right now. In fact, he probably wouldn’t have been able to take it.

\---

For the rest of the day, the Voice stayed buried.

Kage had hoped it would stay that way for good, but it came back anyway like a cockroach that hadn’t been completely squashed.

It threw its vengeance at Keith instead of her, tearing through him like a bullet.

Some days, it left holes so big that it seemed there was nothing more to destroy, but Kage was there, constantly trying to rebuild the scraps. Whatever success she had, however, was always torn down again the next day. But she didn’t give up, focusing more of her time on Keith, and somehow, Keith continued existing.

Kage was glad for that, although it pained her that it had to be like this. It seemed the only thing Keith still believed in was the Voice.

That awful Voice.

She wished it would just leave him alone.

\----

Soon, Keith’s obvious attempts to end his life lessened in number, but he wasn’t getting any better.  He was simply giving up on that way out. She knew he was going to try to find another way to end his suffering, she only hoped it wouldn’t involve his death.

One day, the worst possible opportunity came along.

Naxzela.

It started with the Rebellion taking the lead with them initiating the battle. They had successfully captured the Galra bases and ships. They were winning, but it wasn’t long before the situation turned sour.

That worthless excuse for a witch decided to turn a planet into a bomb. The rebels were trying to stop her, but the shields on her ship were just too strong. Nothing they did seemed to work.

She watched as Keith’s look turned from fear to flat-out desperation at the thought of everything he cared about being destroyed.

Then the look changed to resolve. Keith began piloting his ship straight towards the shields, pushing it to max speed.

He closed his eyes, his expression strangely peaceful.

Somehow, this scared her more than anything else. She realized what he meant to do. And there was no way she'd let him follow through with it

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Please comment on what you thought and I'll be sure to tell my friend if there's anything you want to tell her about the story.
> 
> (Again sorry for the awkwardness.)


End file.
